It is known to manufacture vehicle body panels, such as a vehicle hood or a vehicle fender, of laminated fiber reinforced construction in which sheets of carbon fiber or glass fiber are placed in a mold and bonded together with resin. The fiber sheets can be pre-impregnated with the resin. Or, the resin can be provided by injection into the mold, commonly referred to as resin transfer molding or resin injection molding.
In the styling of motor vehicles it is often desirable to provide a vent opening in the panel. The vent may be an actual intake for cooling air, or the vent may simply create the appearance of an actual vent in order to enhance the vehicle design. Heretofore, the provision of such a vent would involve making a hole in the vehicle panel and then attaching a separate vent screen onto the vehicle panel to fill the hole. The vent screen would typically be of molded plastic or stamped metal construction and include actual or simulated air openings or louvers. The vent screen is attached to the vehicle panel via rivets, adhesive, screws, flexible tabs, or other conventional fasteners.
It would be desirable to provide an improved method by which a vent screen could be integrally molded into a fiber reinforced panel such as a vehicle hood or fender.